Last February, Microsoft released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. This new operating system features a totally revamped user interface to provide a seamless look and feel on desktop PCs, laptops, netbooks, phones and tablet devices.
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Microsoft have to work hard to iron out these issues if they want this operating system to be a success like Windows 7- Jesmond Darmanin
Windows 8 Consumer Preview was welcomed by the majority – however, others have reservations on how this new OS will work.
Let’s tackle performance first. When Microsoft announced the release of Windows 8 with the Metro touch interface, my first concern was system resources. However, it seems that Microsoft took great care to make sure the new OS works well on older or slower machines. I was very surprised to see that the system worked faster on my older testing laptop, even faster than Windows 7.
I also noticed a performance increase during boot times. Considering this is still beta version, I was very surprised at how optimised the system is. After booting into Windows 8, you are now presented with a new lock screen. This has a beautiful picture along with a few information widgets, like the time and how many e-mails you have.
After swiping up to unlock, Windows 8 shows off some neat touch-based features, particularly a ‘picture password’ feature. Instead of using a PIN or a lock pattern to get into your system, you swipe invisible gestures using a picture to orient yourself.
The home screen is familiar to anyone who has used Windows Phone. You have a set of tiles, each of which represents an application, and many of which show information and notifications that correspond to the app.
For example, your calendar tile will show upcoming events and your music tile will show you what’s playing. You can also create tiles for games, contacts, and even traditional Windows. You can easily rearrange the app tiles on the home screen by dragging and dropping.
Running a basic, Metro-style app works as you would expect it to – you tap on its home screen icon and it goes full screen. Apps can share information easily, including selected text or photos. After picking your media from one app, you’ll then be able to choose which app you want to share with. For example, you can share photos to Facebook and send text from a web page in an e-mail.
None of this is new to touch-based platforms – what is new is the ability to not only multitask, but run these apps side by side. For example, you can watch a video and keep an eye on your news feed at the same time.
Just like in Windows 7 for desktop, you can dock an app to one side of the screen while docking another app on the opposite side – imagine being able to IM and play a game at the same time, or browse the web while writing an e-mail.
It’s a fantastic way to fix one of the big shortcomings of mobile OSs, allowing you to ignore the full desktop interface more often and stay in the touch-friendly, tablet view.
Then there’s the Windows Store. Currently, the Windows Store is full of free apps from Microsoft and its partners, so you can check out some of the upcoming apps now. When Windows 8 is officially released to the public, though, you should find many more apps in the store, including paid ones.
What’s cool about the app store is that you can try apps before you buy, and then download the full version without losing your place in the app or reinstalling anything.
Your address book, photos, Skydrive data, and even data within third-party apps can sync up to the cloud, and you can access them on any Windows 8 device, even a brand new one.
Just sign in, and you’ll have access to everything. The address book also syncs with other services like Facebook and Twitter. You can even sync all your settings from one Windows 8 PC to another. Just sign onto your Windows 8 with a Microsoft account and all your themes, languages, app settings, taskbar, and other preferences will show right up. It’s a neat feature if you have multiple Windows 8 PCs and don’t want to set them all up separately.
The traditional desktop is still there, though it is a tad different than what you’re used to. First, there’s no start button and your taskbar only shows the apps you have pinned, with your system tray on the right, as usual. You can jump back to the start screen (the Metro screen) by pressing the Windows key or moving your mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen. Other than that, everything looks pretty similar.
Microsoft has also finally redesigned the task manager. You have a very simple task manager for basic task killing, but if you’re a more advanced user, you can bring up the detailed task manager with information on CPU and RAM usage, Metro app history, and start-up tweaking – this means you can get rid of apps that launch on start-up without going all the way into msconfig.
Windows 8 also comes with other features we’ve come to love in our mobile OSs. It hassystem-wide spellchecking, and a system-wide search feature that lets you search anything from your music library to your contacts to the web itself. It also has a great feature for desktop users that lets your run the Metro UI on one monitor while running the traditional desktop on the other.
‘Refresh your PC’ is another interesting feature which lets you do a clean install with one tap of a button. Whether you’re selling your machine or just want a cleaner, faster Windows installation, you can do it all in one click.
You can even set refresh points, similar to restore points, so you can refresh your PC to the way it was at a certain point in time.
Although Windows 8 is an innovative system, there are a few flaws that have to be re-evaluated before the final version is released.
Microsoft says the system is just as usable with a mouse and keyboard as one would with a touch screen. I have my reservations.
To start with, there is probably too much emphasis on the touch interface on a system that is going to be primarily used on computers with mouse and keyboard. At the moment I can safely say that less than one per cent of Windows users have a touch screen PC. The new touch screen interface feels a bit clumsy to use with keyboard and mouse.
There is a tremendous lack of consistency in the OS and clashing interfaces where at one point the user would be using a Metro style app, and then having to move to use an app with a more classic look that probably doesn’t work too well with a touch screen interface. The Metro and classic screens make you feel like you’re using two different OSs at once.
One last major flaw I experienced is that the system has a variety of menus that appear when you hover your mouse to the edges of the screen. Unless you know about these hidden menus, it will take a while to discover them.
In the coming months, leading to the final OS release, Microsoft have to work hard to iron out these issues if they want this operating system to be a success like Windows 7.
A technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.